Happy Mother’s Day for those in my time zone. (We’ll celebrate for everyone else again tomorrow. :0) )
“When you’re a child she walks before you
To set an example.
When you’re a teenager she walks behind you
To be there should you need her.
When you’re an adult she walks beside you
So that as two friends you can enjoy life together.”
—Unknown
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Harvey didn’t smile, but he took the painting in his hand, looked at it a long time and said, “Good.” I asked him if he wanted me to add it to his wall, and he nodded. I am planning to take him another cartoon character every other week, unless there is a holiday or other special day to celebrate instead. Harvey wasn’t making a lot of sense, otherwise, but he seemed content and comfortable. He did tell me he loved me when I told him and hugged his head. A good visit.
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Newest painted sketches. I will finish one sketchbook today and have started sketchbook #3. Between sketching, painting them, writing blog posts and researching to find more things to share, I have such a happy life. Both of these things are challenging, fun, and fulfilling.
And THEN I add trying to re-learn to play my guitar and sing, working on a beautiful jigsaw puzzle that lives on my puzzle table ready for me to come work on it whenever I can make the time, listening to music, reading, doing my exercises, taking short walks, going to the cafe, I’m a lucky, spoiled-rotten, very happy and grateful lady.
This is what I call my “statement shelf” in my living area.
This is the centerpiece of my statement shelf. My dad painted this of me when I was about 6, saying it was a “personality” piece. Brian saw that I had a really hard time leaving this painting behind when we moved to Arkansas, so he ordered a print of it on glass. The print comes with the little black stand for it to sit in, or it also comes with a ‘frame,’ but I prefer it this way. Because of Brian’s sensitivity and generosity, my dad is here in my condo with me.
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It had been years and years since I had tried to work a jigsaw puzzle because they drove Harvey crazy. I decided to have a puzzle table where the puzzle I was working on could be right out in the middle of the living area where I could work on it whenever I wanted, not bothering anyone. I thought I would never finish this. It was quite difficult for me. I still love all the owls and the bright colors. Brian is having each of the puzzles I finish printed on glass so I can enjoy them for years afterwards AND give them to someone else to enjoy when I am finished.
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I went for a fantasy scene next. I learned that because I like blue and purple, especially, does not make for an easy jigsaw puzzle. For any one piece, it could have gone ANYWHERE in this puzzle! I loved the image, though.
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Underwater, dolphins and turtles. What could be better? I loved the colors and action in this one. The four dolphins made it difficult to figure out WHICH dolphin I was working on, and the spaghetti-looking stuff in the middle was a nightmare. I patted myself on the back when this one was finished. :0)
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This is a print of an original drawing by my husband’s cousin. He had sent us a print in a card for each Christmas for several years. I had kept all of them, but had to leave them behind in the move. Jon sent me this as a surprise this past Christmas-time and I framed it and display it proudly on my statement shelf – the beginning of a new collection of his work.
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And now – finally – the newest addition to the statement shelf – the glass print we just received this week of the glorious turtle who only emerged at the very last of the puzzle. I’ve never had a puzzle where the main subject was ‘hidden’ in the weird colored pieces that didn’t seem to fit together. This one was literally worked from the outside in, with his head being the very last thing to come together. I truly love him.
When this statement shelf is too full for anything more, I’m seriously thinking of having a shelf put up on another wall. There is one wall that is absolutely empty as you come in my place just crying for something. Since I haven’t fallen in love with any artwork, I can see a shelf that will be ready to receive several more glass prints of jigsaw puzzles…
I just finished a very short session of trying to learn and get my guitar sounds to sound clear. I remembered that I thought I had a picture of a drawing a friend of my family growing up drew when he and his wife came to see me perform at “The Dust Bowl” in Tulsa, OK when I was starting high school and continuing through college. The date hanging from my foot says, November 2, 1964, so this was in the dark ages. The next summer I would meet and fall in love with my Harvey and he would soon join the Marines for the next 4 years.
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We will leave soon to go visit Harvey. I have “Mr. Natural” ready to take to him and put up on his “Happy Wall.” It would be nice to get a smile, but we’ll meet him where he is and try to brighten his day a bit. We’ll probably stop for chocolate on the way home, regroup, and then spend some time at the cafe.
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Brian opted out on the gym because he’s still coughing hard. Hopefully, in another couple of days we’ll both feel like resuming our normal early morning schedule. He did find some cough medicine that seems to be loosening his cough and helping him get rid of the problem.
“Burning Horizonz’ – Mira – @deepgreens.bsky.social
I think this is stunningly beautiful.
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Today is Friday, our ‘out-of-pocket’ day, as far as schedules go. My throat is still sore and I was coughing much of the night, so opted out of the gym this morning. Brian was the same.
I have just come back from a beautiful massage from Khun Weaw, and am feeling really good, otherwise, now. Brian had to vacate his place because of Khun Nong’s sister cleaning, so he has been working down here. He just went to pick up a snack he ordered for us. YUM!!
After a while, we will pack up and go to the cafe to spend the afternoon so that the housekeeper’s sister can clean MY place.
“If you are not coffee, chocolate or bacon, I’m going to need you to go away.”
– Anonymous
Etsy
“I like my coffee like I like myself: strong, sweet, and too hot for you.”
–Jac Vanek
NayNay’s Junk Drawer
“Coffeeology: Espresso yourself. So many blends, so little time. Take life one sip at a time, and stay grounded. Better latte than never. Take time to smell the cover.”
I just finished this latest painted sketch. This one intimidated me because it’s a shrine, a holy place, a sacred place, but I wanted to try to capture the quiet, the calm, the reverence of the many shrines everywhere we go in the city. On many days there are flowers left, soft drinks, snacks. It is said the spirits are fond of sugary things, and people want to please them. Piles of flowers, garlands, lights – all kinds of things are left to honor the spirits. None of these things are ever touched. I guess someone finally clears things out, but that happens when people don’t see it. This is one style of shrine. The other major one is a “house,” usually meant to thank the spirits for allowing the person to build a house or open a shop on a piece of land, and the house is meant to make up for that. I’ll try to find a good image of that sometime soon.
This is another one I finished today.
“Mr. Natural” is the first in the series of Harvey’s long time favorite cartoon characters that I’m painting and will add to his “Happy Wall” tomorrow when we go visit.
This is one of the mailbox decorations we made when we lived in Arkansas. Anyway, I’m hoping that Harvey will get a kick out of putting these up on his wall and give him some happy memories.
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Brian came up to my table at the front window at the cafe early today, saying he was ready to go home. When we got home, he steered me to the pick up area where there was some type of ‘goody’ waiting. It turne out to be the to-die-for delicious cream-filled, no-name “thingie” that we love. We snarfed it down handily. Then he tuned my guitar, and we talked about the fact that it seemed a little unusual that this guitar needs to be tuned every day. He then showed me another way to do the “C” chord that might help with my finger-stretching and flesh-on-the-box problem. I’ll try it after dinner.
Happiness come from within, and one of the things you need to know is that your happiness depends on shedding. Think of it as shedding like a sheep is sheared or like a dog with long, matted hair is cleaned up at the groomer’s. Getting rid of all that ‘weight’ is the first step to happiness.
When we moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand, a bit over a year ago to retire and live close to our grown son, we faced over 40 years of accumulation. We had a large house with attics, a basement, a full room pantry, a porch, a deck, books and collections filling every room, a room devoted to my art and supplies and business, a 2o x 40 foot fully-equipped shop, two vehicles not including riding mowers, and more. Getting rid of all that broke my heart – until I looked at it differently.
We met some new neighbors who were ‘creators’ who bought a lot of the equipment in our shop. The woman is an artist, and she bought a lot of my art supplies and equipment. A friend bought our truck. We gave her our new lawn mower because at one point she was kind enough to give us hers when we didn’t have the money to buy one. Best of all, these people opened their hearts and adopted our dog and cat – the hardest and most beautiful thing of all.
We had to pare things down to one suitcase and one backpack each to make the trip to Thailand. We left everything else behind. Everything. It was auctioned at pennies on the dollar – the yard critters we created from scrap metal, the sheet metal decorations for our mailbox , things listed for sale on Etsy – all of it.
I learned to see that as a freeing experience. We were too old and ill to take care of our place anymore, no matter how much we wanted to. We wanted to retire and live close to our son. Make a new start, live a healthier life, be able to see our son all the time. The fact that our son wanted us to do this meant the world. The fact that my husband agreed and was willing to try a totally new lifestyle still amazes me.
We lived in an air bnb here in the building where I now have my condo and Brian has his. As you know, my husband had a stroke two weeks after we arrived here and he is now in a nursing home. So that meant shedding all of the retirement plans we had made, as well, prioritizing finding a good place that would give our husband/dad the care he needed.
Once we got him in a place we could trust, we could concentrate on my moving into my condo, changing out a bunch of the furniture, arranging things, fixing others, etc. I am enjoying learning to take my time in creating my place. Each piece in here MEANS something to me or it goes. I have minimal supplies and equipment. All I need. I have learned that having a winter’s worth of something is no longer a priority. I get what I need. If I run out, I either get more or let it go. Having fewer things makes it much easier to keep things in place and make it easier for my housekeeper (!) to clean. I can find things easily, straighten things quickly, and look around taking pride in MY place.
I am learning to donate, recycle, or throw away, rather than store things ‘just in case,’ Donation is wonderful. I love the idea of someone else being able to make use of something I no longer need. Recycling is a money maker for the condo. If I can’t do either of those things, I get rid of it. I don’t make space for things I can’t prove to myself I need anymore.
I have learned to build my new life around things that bring me joy. I work jigsaw puzzles. I play on the computer. I read. I try to sketch things and then paint them. I write blog posts and love interacting with the people who take the time to read what I’ve written, like the post, or maybe even comment. I spend much of my day either writing or researching things to write about or share. I’m trying to re-learn to play the guitar and sing. Right now I can only play two chords and sound like a sick frog, but hey – I’m the only one listening. I love to listen to YouTube in the evenings before bed to wind down and to share the joy the newly discovered talents of the singing competition shows as the contestants are shown people LIKE what they are hearing.
I’m taking my health really seriously, having almost not had the chance to BE here a year ago. I now go to the gym every morning and walk a mile on the treadmill. I do either yoga stretches or exercises with water bottles in the afternoon. I do exercise videos or dance to heavy beat music on a haphazard basis. I take the stairs going down from Brian’s to my condo. I’m finally almost to my goal weight now and I want to continue to eat healthy meals, stay in my tiny allowance area of my weight, and build my strength, flexibility and balance.
I don’t ‘know what I’m doing.’ Like on the guitar, I’m playing this by ear. Doing what seems to me to be right for me now. I have a list of what makes me happy and am working to include as much of it as possible in my days.
I won’t tolerate ‘surface’ people anymore. I shed people when I find out that they don’t share my values. I’m talking about the really core issues that make us human. I treasure the wonderful people I have found in this life and try to tell and show them how very much they mean to me. I don’t play games trying to impress people anymore. I am who I am. What you see and hear and read is what you get. Real relationships are what is important to me now.
I do the best I can every day and have shed worrying about things I can’t control. Like the ‘do not disturb’ button on the phone, I hit the ‘don’t worry about this button’ in my mind.
I am happier with all the shedding of things, weight, old ideas and feelings, people who weren’t worth the bother, and things I couldn’t do anything about anyway. Nanea Hoffman says it succinctly and well. I am trying to live by her words.
I’m trying really hard not to get sick. I opted out of the gym this morning. I have a bit of a sore throat, some hoarseness to my voice, a slight runny nose, a slight cough. Nothing exciting like fever, chills, not being able to eat or sleep, etc., though. If I show more symptoms, or the ones I have get worse, Brian will make me a concoction of Vitamin C powder, although he doesn’t think it helped him this time.
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I’ve been spending my time doing base painting of my sketches and working on my magificent cheetah puzzle this morning. Since I’m not feeling bad, I’m hoping we’ll spend time at the cafe, where I can do the details on finishing my painted sketches while drinking a mocha. Maybe I can luck out and get “MY” spot today!
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More of my most recent painted sketches.
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etsy.com
One thing that impresses me so much about Thailand is men not being afraid to show their softer side. I keep seeing wonderful sights like a big, burly man on a motorcycle. His motorcyle is pink and his tee with the cut off arms is picking, letting his sleeve tattoos show. Couple that with a pink helmet with bear ears attached to the top and his backpack with several cute little stuff animals attached to it. The thing that is super wonderful is that this is NOT an uncommon sight here. Grab drivers have stuffed kitties asleep on their dashboards. Grab motorcycle riders are blowing bubbles on their way down the road. Men show their emotions when something sweet touches them. What a beautiful thing!
This tree is at Harvey’s nursing home. I have no clue what it is. I’m amazed at the huge green ‘fruit’ hanging from some of the branches.
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Mango.org
Speaking of fruit, Brian received a gift when he was out walking yesterday afternoon. A lady who runs a Thai food shop stopped him. (He really likes that place, but her hours run such that, since we don’t eat lunch, we basically can’t go while she’s open.) She gave him a mango (a yellow one), just to be nice. We shared it for breakfast this morning and I don’t see how a fruit could taste better. It was perfectly ripe and very sweet. Absolutely delicious!
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AND, speaking of how NICE people are here in Chiang Mai, when we were at the cafe this afternoon, the nice lady server I gave the earrings to brought me my mocha. She had noticed that I always get up soon after my drink arrives, and get two napkins – one to fold under the glass and the other to wrap around the drink. (The glass gets wet and I can’t do my sketches or finish my painted sketches with wet fingers. ) Today without a word, my drink had a napkin folded under it, and another napkin wrapped around it in such a way that she had ‘TIED’ it to stay on the glass. She is really spoiling me. (The other two servers, including my guy I had the water fights with) don’t do that, so I’ll just enjoy the spoiling when it happens. :0)
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AND – a special treat while I was at the cafe – a lady stopped by my table, looking amazed. Then she had a delighted look on her face. She asked me if she could take a picture. She did, and thanked me. I told her I was just trying to teach myself how to draw and then painting the sketches. Before we left, I stopped and thanked her for making my day. 🎨
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These are new painted sketches.
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We went to visit Harvey this morning. He was comfortable and calm, but basically wanted to watch TV instead of talk with us. We confirmed that he is reading his book – not whether or not he’s using the reading light he asked us to get for him – but that was the whole of the conversation today. I’m thankful he was content and interested in the pretty ladies doing something similar to a QVC channel.
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Acoustic Guitar
I’m making a bit of progress on relearning my basic chords. I can now play “A” and “E minor” without referring to anything and they sound okay. “C” is still a disaster – I can hear my teacher from the Dark Ages telling me to “keep your flesh off the box, dahlin'” as my strings are all flat and muffled. I’m trying to learn to change my grip so my fingers will stretch, and push hard enough, but the fingertips give out before I can get the clear sound I want. I keep practicing really short sessions several times a day, trying to build up my callouses so I can practice longer…
I LOVE the light in this photo and all the different shades of green. What a beautiful place to spend a lot of time!
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Brian was better today, so we went to the gym this morning. He’s still not 100%, but he was exercising, eating, and we went to the cafe to spend some time this afternoon. He wanted to take a long walk in the sunshine. “Long walk” means MILES in “Brian-speak,” so I opted out. I’m so glad to see him perking up.
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I finished several painted sketches today. I’ve been doing the base painting here in the condo and then taking my colored pencils and other detail finishing supplies in my art backpack to the cafe. I had gotten way ahead on sketches, and I’m almost out of space to do new sketches in this book, so I’m doing some catch up.
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123RF.com
I’m having to pick and choose what I will do with my time these days, running out of time long before I have done all I wanted to do. Frustrating to be so spoiled that I can’t decide which thing will bring me the most joy to do next….
I think this artwork is absolutely amazing. There are no words to describe the light and shadows and the depth of the work. I’ll just sit here and drool.
“Sunrise over Lake Superior from Grand Marais” – Bryan Hansel – Substack
Isn’t this glorious?
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Brian is trying really hard NOT to get sick, so we didn’t go to the gym this morning. He is resting and loading up on Vitamin C. We shared a Thai breakfast this morning of a rice porridge dish called, “Joke,” a combination of rice, chicken and nice spices all mortared and pesteled into a nice dish. We had a side of watermelon. I’m not sure if we’ll go to the cafe this afternoon or not.
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Two latest painted sketches.
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This is for everybody, but especially for Donna, who takes almost as much interest in the puzzles as I do. The border doesn’t show here, except for the black part under the cheetah.
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I’m moving from guitar practice, to puzzle, to blog post, to painting and then back again. It’s been a very nice morning. I will plan on adding my exercises with water bottles this afternoon since we opted out on the gym this morning.
Happy May! I hope this month brings you nicer, calmer weather, some flowers pushing up confirming Spring, and lots and lots of smiles.
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Two latest painted sketches. I tried to show in this one that it doesn’t matter what kind of shop it is, the people use lots of plants to make it inviting.
I’m into a fun pattern now, where I paint some sketches at home, then take them to the cafe to add details and finish them, then do more sketches.
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Yesterday at the cafe they were taking pictures of drinks for some kind of promotion. I wasn’t in the way and they allowed me to watch. They would make a drink – for example, a pretty one with purple froth on top. Then they would go outside and find some tiny purple flowers and greenery to add to the top of the drink before photographing. It was beautiful and fascinating. They saw I was taking an interest, so they started looking at me for at thumbs up when I liked what I saw. 😁
I used Google Translate yesterday to thank the lady server there who has been so kind to me. She watches for ‘my spot’ to open up, for example. She came and got me recently and helped me move my stuff! Anyway, I thanked her for being so kind. I told her I had made some wooden earrings and wanted to give them to her as a gift for her kindness. I thought she was going to cry. It was a really nice moment.
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We are going to visit Harvey this morning. The nursing home sent Brian a picture of him READING! He wasn’t using the reading light (it was in bed with him) but he was reading again for the first time in a long time. We’re hoping to encourage that today, show him how to use the light again, if needed, and hopefully brighten his day.
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I’m practicing with my guitar – though progress is painfully slow – and learning one chord at a time now. I’m learning “A”, picturing it in my mind rather than referring to diagrams, and doing as well as I can placing my fingers as near the frets as possible, continuing to work at it until I get a good, clean sound. I do this several times before my fingertips start yelling at me. I’m building callouses as I practice. 🎸
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